Smoked Salmon Dip

If you visit my e-kitchen on a regular basis, you know that when I like an ingredient, I tend to use it a lot. The only thing better than having plenty of [insert favorite ingredient here] on hand is getting creative with it! Recasting a favorite is also a delicious way to love your leftovers and not waste a single scrap.

In this case, I had some extra smoked wild salmon on hand after I’d used half of it to make my egg-and-salmon breakfast. I briefly tossed around the idea of making crepes and then stuffing them with the salmon, but in the end I decided to go a completely different route and blend the salmon with some Greek yogurt to make a quick dip. Once you’ve got your dip, you can put it on crackers, serve it with raw veggies, or even spread some on a sandwich (or a crepe). The lovely hue — and flavor! — of the wild salmon shines through even when you dilute it with the yogurt, so you don’t need much salmon to make a good-sized batch of dip.

Smoked Salmon Dip
This makes enough for a nice appetizer for two, but seeing as smoked wild salmon is often sold in 4 oz. packages, you may wish to double the recipe.

2 oz. wild smoked salmon
1/2 cup whole-milk Greek yogurt (Fage is a great choice)
1 tsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
A few grinds of peppercorns
Whole-grain crackers/breads and raw veggies for serving

Place all ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth. Taste and see if you’d like it to be a little brighter in flavor. If you do, add another teaspoon of lemon juice. (Smoked salmon can be quite salty sometimes, so you may want to counter that with extra lemon.)

Dip can be enjoyed immediately or refrigerated for up to 5 days.

Enjoy!

Breakfast Lemon Squares

Lemons are lovely, especially when you pair them with oats and almonds and eggs and call them breakfast. Baked goods (or leftover pancakes) are my favorite things to have for weekday breakfasts since they require zero work first thing in the morning. Fifteen minutes of effort once or twice a week can provide you with hearty, healthy breakfasts that will make you want to get out of bed so you can enjoy them!

Muffins are my go-to standard — they’re endlessly versatile, and you can make a batch of 12 in less time than it would take to go to the store to buy “enriched” stripped-out bagels that will give you an ill-advised sugar rush and then leave you hungry an hour after you’ve eaten them — but this time I decided to revamp an old sugary favorite to come up with a new lightly sweetened and highly nutritious breakfast: the beloved lemon square. Here, almonds, oats, and sorghum have replaced refined flour, and the tartness of the lemon is offset by a touch of honey. You might just want to double the recipe and make a 9″x13″ rather than an 8″x8″!

Breakfast Lemon Squares
Makes an 8″x8″ pan, or double the recipe for a 9″x13″ pan.

1/2 stick butter, preferably from grass-fed cows, melted (Kerrygold is a great choice)
1/2 cup oat flour (be sure to use gluten-free oats if you want a gluten-free breakfast; I run my g-f rolled oats through my coffee grinder to make my own flour)
1/2 cup almond flour (that same coffee grinder sure comes in handy for turning sliced almonds into fresh almond flour)
2 T. powdered sucanat (the coffee grinder strikes again!)
1/2 cup sorghum OR millet OR brown rice flour*, divided
3 eggs, preferably from pastured hens
1/2 cup honey
Zest of 1 lemon, preferably organic since you’re using the zest
1/4 c. lemon juice (1 organic lemon tends to give you 1/4 cup juice)
1/2 tsp. baking soda

Preheat oven to 325F and get out an 8″x8″ glass pan. Melt the butter in a small pot over low heat, then pour into a medium mixing bowl and mix well with the oat and almond flours and the powdered sucanat. Add 1/4 cup sorghum flour and stir until well-blended, using your hands to to mix if you like. (Butter is a great skin moisturizer!) Press into the bottom of the glass pan. Bake for 20 minutes.

While the crust is baking, whisk together the eggs, honey, lemon zest and juice, and the remaining 1/4 cup sorghum flour. When the 20 minutes is up and you pull out the crust, whisk the baking soda into the egg mixture and quickly pour it onto the crust. (The baking soda will start to react with the lemon juice immediately, so you want to wait until the last possible second to complete your topping.)

Put the squares back into the oven and bake for another 25 minutes or until the top is turning a light golden brown and you can see dimples forming on the surface. These lightly sweetened squares make a great breakfast, or serve them with fresh fruit and/or ice cream and a drizzle of honey for dessert.

Enjoy!

* This is a gluten-free flour. If you’d rather make a wheat-based version, use kamut, spelt, or whole-wheat flour in place of the sorghum.

(Mayo-Free) Deviled Eggs

As their name implies, this classic appetizer can be devilishly delicious or hellishly horrid. It all depends on the quality of the three main ingredients: the pickles, the mustard, and most importantly the eggs. I also prefer to make deviled eggs sans mayonnaise or with homemade mayonnaise — the jiggly white stuff you buy in the store has zero resemblance to actual fresh mayonnaise. (The latter ought to be egg yolk whisked with unrefined oil and a splash of lemon juice or vinegar. Simple, delicious, and versatile; add a knifetip of minced garlic, and you have aioli.) When I made these eggs, I opted for the easy route and drizzled in just enough extra-virgin olive oil to create a spoonable consistency.

Deviled eggs are ideal party appetizers since you can prepare them a day ahead and unveil them as soon as the first guest walks in. And leftover eggs make a fantastic breakfast!

(Mayo-Free) Deviled Eggs
This makes enough for 8 deviled egg halves. Feel free to double or triple the recipe as needed.

4 eggs, preferably from pastured hens
3-4 dill pickle spears (I adore McClure’s Garlic & Dill pickles, so I always use those), minced
1 T. capers
1/2 tsp. to 3/4 tsp. mustard, depending on how hot your mustard is and how much you like mustard (I prefer German-style mustard that’s smooth and medium-spicy)
Juice of 1/4 lemon
Extra-virgin olive oil
Sweet paprika for garnishing

Place the eggs in a medium pot and fill the pot halfway with water. Cover the pot, put it on the stove over high heat, and keep an ear perked for the sound of the lid starting to rattle as the water comes to a boil. As soon as you hear that, turn the heat down to medium, keep covered, and simmer the eggs for 10 minutes. You may wish to add a splash of vinegar to reduce the likelihood of the eggs getting foamy and boiling over. (I skip the vinegar and take my chances.)

When the 10 minutes are up, put the pot in the sink and run cold water into it until you can comfortably reach into the water. Hold the eggs against the pot while you pour out all of the water. Refill with ice-cold water and let the eggs sit in the water until they’re cool enough to touch. Cooling them promptly and thoroughly will prevent the yolks from discoloring. At this point, you can dry them off and keep them in a bowl in the fridge for a week if you like — hard-boiled eggs come in quite handy.

Lightly tap the eggs on a hard surface and then peel off the shells. (Note: if the shells are difficult to peel away, congratulations! You have very fresh eggs indeed.) Cut each egg in half the long way and pop the yolk into a mixing bowl. Mash the yolks with a fork until fluffy, then stir in pickles, capers, mustard, and lemon juice. Taste a bit to see if you’d like to add more mustard or lemon juice. Drizzle in just enough oil to make the mixture spoonable.

Arrange the egg white halves on a nice plate, fill each one with the yolk filling, and sprinkle paprika over the tops as garnish.

Enjoy!

White Bean & Green Onion Salad

Although I like beans in general, I’ve never been a big fan of the traditional three-bean salad, mostly because red kidney beans are my least favorite bean. I utterly adore Great White Northern beans, though. And small red and black and cranberry and chickpea and really any other bean except lima.

If you’re like me and you always make chili with non-kidney varieties of beans, then you’ll love this salad. The fact that it’s made with just one bean and four ingredients also makes it easier to prepare. This would be an ideal last-minute side dish to take along to a holiday gathering!

White Bean & Green Onion Salad
This can easily be doubled or tripled if you’d like to take a big batch along to a party.

15 oz. can of Great White Northern beans (I prefer the Eden line of beans since they’re made with sea salt and a pinch of seaweed and are sold in BPA-free cans)
3 green onions, green part only, minced
Juice of 1/4 lemon or to taste
2 tsp. tamari/soy sauce (if you’re making a gluten-free dish, be sure to use wheat-free tamari)

Drain the beans, reserving the liquid if you’d like. When I use Eden beans, I always hang onto the leftover bean “drippings” in case I want to add them back in. Place beans in a large bowl and mix well with onions, lemon juice, and tamari. Taste and see if you’d like to make the dish more acidic (add lemon) or more savory (add tamari) or both. If your lemon has more rind than juice, you might wind up using half or even all of its juice. Stir in some of the bean drippings if you’d like to thicken the dressing.

These seasoned beans get even better upon standing, so feel free to make this ahead of time and refrigerate for up to a week. You could even mash the leftover salad to make a dip if you’d like to repurpose your leftovers into a “new” dish. You could also add minced red bell pepper or carrots to create a confetti effect.

Enjoy!

Chickpea Avocado Soup

I think creamy veggie soups are the perfect fall dish — they’re thickly hearty and warming, but all the vegetables remind me of summertime. (Ah, my poor garden! But hopefully the winter months will give the freshly laid compost some time to sink in…) And the fact that there are lots of ways to make soup creamy adds to the fun.

Aside from the obvious option of adding cream or coconut milk to your soups, you can purée potatoes, beets, turnips, and other root vegetables; you can purée cooked grains like brown rice, quinoa, or millet; or you can purée cooked/canned beans, lentils, or peas. If you want a cross between a creamy and a chunky soup, mash any of those ingredients instead of puréeing them. Or purée the soup but hold back some of the intact elements and then re-add them after you’ve finished making your soup velvety.

This creamy soup features an additional creamy ingredient, one that’s so well-suited for the job that I overlooked its potential for a long time: an avocado. (Wasn’t it Sherlock Holmes who said that if you want to hide something, put it right out in front of everyone’s noses?) A ripe avocado is the ultimate in creamy richness. Normally, the avocado’s major drawback is that it browns when cut and left in contact with air. Since you’re completely submerging the avocado in the soup, though, you won’t have to worry about any browning going on — the other ingredients will protect the delicate green flesh even after it’s been puréed.

Chickpea Avocado Soup
Makes enough to serve 2 for a hearty meal or 4 as a side dish.

1 sweet onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
3 cups chicken broth, preferably made from pastured chicken
15 oz. canned chickpeas (I use Eden brand since their canned legumes are BPA-free and they’re canned with sea salt and a pinch of seaweed)
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1 T. dried basil
1 avocado, flesh only
Juice of 1/4 to 1/2 lemon (if you have a super-juicy lemon, you might only need 1/4 of it)

Sautée the onion in a stockpot over medium heat with a splash of extra-virgin olive oil for 4 minutes or until onion is turning translucent. Add garlic and continue to cook, stirring often, for another 2 minutes or until garlic is softened and fragrant. Pour in broth and chickpeas and simmer for 5 minutes, reducing heat to medium-low if the soup is furiously boiling rather than gently simmering. Note that if you use Eden beans, you might as well use the entire undrained can. Why waste any of that extra (non-BPA-tinged) flavor? Stir in salt and basil and remove from heat.

Purée soup with a hand-blender/immersion blender. If you don’t have one of those nifty kitchen gadgets, pour the soup into a blender and purée. Add the avocado and the lemon juice and purée for a few more seconds. Taste to see if you’d like to add any more lemon juice, basil, or salt.

Serve immediately, garnishing with sweet paprika if you like. Note that leftover soup will keep for 4 days in the refrigerator.

Enjoy!

Potatoes with Basil & Anchovy

As long as you’re not planning on stuffing them, when you go for potatoes, give the smallest ones a try. They have a higher skin-to-inner-flesh ratio than the big boys do (which gives them a nutritional edge), they cook much faster thanks to their diminutive stature, and all you have to do to make them bite-size is cut them in half. And since they fit so easily into the palm of your hand, cleaning them is a snap: just wash and scrub your hands well with a potato or two between them.

Once you have your little taters prepped and ready to go, you can roast them, boil them, slice and sautée them, grate them…the list goes on and on. I like to boil a batch of them for 10 minutes, stick whatever I don’t immediately use into the refrigerator, and then sautée the precooked potatoes for various dishes as I see fit. In this case, I cut the boiled potatoes into slices before sautéeing them and tossing them with extra-flavorful ingredients like anchovy paste and fresh basil. If you boil your potatoes before you sautée them, you’ll get nicely browned potatoes that are evenly cooked through; if you jump right to the sautéeing part and skip the boiling step, you’re more likely to burn the cut surfaces and undercook the centers.

Potatoes with Basil & Anchovy

6 small potatoes, boiled for 10 minutes and drained
3 cloves garlic, chopped
4 medium tomatoes (yellow, green, or red), chopped
1 tsp. anchovy paste
Juice from one-quarter of a lemon
About 8 large fresh basil leaves, cut into strips (or more if you’re a basil fanatic — I went slightly nuts on my portion)
Sprinkling of red pepper flakes
Dash of sea salt

Cut potatoes into 1/2″-thick slices. Heat extra-virgin olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat for 1 minute. Place potato slices on skillet, pushing each one to the edges as you put it down so that you’ll have room to add more. Try not to overlap the potato slices — that nice golden brown happens when the surface of the potato is resting flat on the surface of the oiled pan. Sautée, uncovered and occasionally shaking the pan, for a good 10 minutes or until the bottoms of the potatoes are golden brown. Flip each slice and continue to cook for another 10 minutes or until both sides are equally golden brown. Add a little more oil to the pan and toss in the garlic. Cook, shifting both the garlic and the potatoes occasionally, for another 3 minutes or until garlic is softened and fragrant.

Slide the potatoes and garlic into a large mixing bowl and toss well with remaining ingredients, adding the pepper and salt to taste. (Remember that the anchovy paste will be salty.) Serve immediately. Cut basil turns black fairly quickly, so this doesn’t make the most eye-catching leftovers. If you’d like to keep some around for the next day, top each portion with the basil instead of tossing it into the mix; non-basiled leftover potatoes will keep for 4 days in the fridge. This would be a great side to serve with sautéed trout, walleye, or any other light-flavored fish.

Enjoy!

Cilantro Hummus

One thing I always have in my pantry: chickpeas. One thing I always have in my refrigerator: tahini. Why? Because hummus is my go-to staple, no matter if I need a last-minute appetizer, a dish to take to a party, or a quick dinner. You just can’t go wrong with hummus. (I omitted garlic and lemon from my pantry/fridge list because those are two ingredients I have on hand no matter what — don’t need to remember to stock those indispensable items!)

Aside from gorgeous flavor and surprising heartiness, another key attraction of hummus is its readiness to be customized. You can blend in anything from herbs to cooked veggies and other beans/legumes. (How about blending in some cooked lentils and white kidney beans for a three-bean dip?) You can also spice hummus to suit your taste buds: add a dash of cayenne if you’re a fan of hot & spicy, add chili powder for a south-of-the-border tinge to your Mediterranean vibe, or sprinkle on some sumac for authentic tang and color.

For this batch, I decided to throw in the bunch of cilantro I had in my fridge that I needed to use. Not only did the hummus turn out to be a beautiful color, the cilantro suited the chickpeas (and everything else) perfectly. I think all my hummuses might be green from now on!

Cilantro Hummus

1 sizeable bunch cilantro
15 oz. can of chickpeas (Eden is my favorite), drained but liquid reserved
4 cloves garlic, chopped and sautéed in extra-virgin olive oil for 4 minutes over medium-low heat or until garlic is fragrant and softened
Juice of 1/4 to 1/2 lemon (some lemons yield a lot more juice than others!)
1 T. tahini
1/2 to 1 tsp. cumin (I love cumin, so I use a hearty teaspoon)

Rinse the cilantro very well — dirt loves to nestle into those edged frilly leaves! — and cut off the bunch right above where the stems are tied together, going a bit higher if the bottom leaves are yellowed. You want the nice fresh green stuff. Put the cilantro tops (stems and all) into a food processor and add the remaining ingredients. Process until somewhat smooth, then pour in a bit of the reserved bean liquid and process again. Add more liquid if necessary, tasting the hummus as soon as it gets fairly smooth to see if you want to add a bit more lemon juice.

You could take this same idea and make your hummus with basil rather than cilantro, or you could even throw in some mint for a change of pace. Herbs + hummus = delicious!

Serve immediately with crackers, chips, flatbread, veggies, pasta, chicken, lamb…you name it. Or you can keep the hummus in the refrigerator for up to a week to enjoy as a quick snack or easy meal.

Enjoy!

Roasted Red Pepper Dip/Soup/Sauce

Raw bell peppers are delicious, but roasted bell peppers are even better. They’re also ridiculously easy to roast yourself: just put the pepper(s) on the center oven rack and roast for 20 minutes at 425F. Immediately drop the pepper(s) into a plastic zip-loc bag, seal, and let sit until cool enough to handle. (The cooling-off time is usually 15 to 20 minutes.) When they’ve cooled, peel off the skin, remove the cores, and discard the seeds. The only tricky part is remembering to place a sheet of aluminum foil on the rack directly below the pepper(s) to catch any drips that might otherwise frizzle onto the bottom of the oven…which, if you’re like me and do not have a self-cleaning oven, are a pain to get off later.

Roasted peppers — of any color: red, yellow, orange, green, or purple — will last for at least 4 days in the fridge. I like to slip mine into a glass jar so that I can see them and therefore not forget they’re there. Or you can immediately use the roasted peppers in a dip, sauce, or soup the way I’ve done here.

Roasted Red Pepper Dip/Soup/Sauce

2 roasted red bell peppers
1/4 cup raw or toasted almonds (I like to pan-toast mine in a dry pan over medium-low heat for 4 minutes or until lightly browned)
4 cloves garlic, chopped and sautéed in a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil over medium-low heat for 4 minutes or until softened and fragrant
Squirt of lemon juice
1 tsp. anchovy paste OR tomato paste
1/2 tsp. to 1 tsp. berbere or chili powder
About 1 T. whole-milk Greek yogurt
Fresh cilantro, chopped (you can include the stems since you’ll be blending them anyway), optional

Place all ingredients in a food processor and blend for about 1 minute, scraping down the sides once or twice. You can either stop when you still have a chunky mixture, or you can keep going and make it velvety smooth. If you want to use it as a dip, either chunky or smooth works; add more yogurt if you want a creamier dip.

If you want to make sauce, you may want to thin the blend with a little bit of water or more lemon juice (although bear in mind that extra lemon juice will make the tangy factor shoot up). If you want to make an unusual chilled soup, blend in a cup or two of vegetable broth or free-range chicken stock. Or maybe you want to triple the batch and try all three ways.

Enjoy!

Chopped Salsa with Capers & Sweet Onion

I have a new love: capers. I’ve been on my caper honeymoon for a week now, and it doesn’t look like the affair will be over any time soon. (A week is a long time for an inquisitive foodie who rarely makes the same thing twice.) Sure, I’ve always had a passing fancy for the salty little unopened flower buds in creamy sauces and dips, but to be honest, I hadn’t taken capers much past tartar sauce. That all changed a week ago when my mother suggested we include capers in a salsa that started out as salsa verde and quickly morphed to our own creation. Her idea was brilliant — the capers didn’t just add a salty/sour tang, they somehow added a smooth, rich aspect to the salsa, almost like a creaminess. Most unexpected, but most welcome!

Now I’m on a quest to see what other settings might be oddly ideal for capers. In the meantime, I’ll pass on the salsa recipe we came up with that evening.

Chopped Salsa with Capers & Sweet Onion

4 medium-large tomatoes, chopped (I have several different tomato plants in my garden, so I used 2 Green Zebras, 1 yellow tomato, and a handful of cherry/grape tomatoes)
1/4 sweet onion, chopped
1 T. capers, drained
Juice of 1/4 of a small lemon (or juice of 1/2 of a lime)

Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl and stir gently. If you’re a fan of hot salsa, try adding a chopped jalapeño or a dash of red pepper flakes. This salsa is fantastic with fish — especially a mild-fleshed kind like the wild Canadian trout pictured here* — or shrimp or chicken. Or you could add more veggies to the salsa, toss in some cooked pasta and chopped fresh herbs, and call it a Pasta Verano (“Summer Pasta”) salad.

Enjoy!

* I prepared the trout by sautéeing it in ghee for about 3 minutes on each side (starting with the skin side up), covered, over medium-low heat. Trout is a very thin filet, though — most fish takes 5+ minutes per side, and extra-thick fish such as salmon and ahi tuna can take 10 minutes per side.

Tartar Sauce Made with Greek Yogurt

They call it raita in India, tzatziki in the Middle East, and tarator in Bulgaria. We call it tartar sauce, and we make it with pickles instead of cucumbers and mayonnaise instead of yogurt. Frankly, though, it’s time to revisit the original versions for some inspiration, because rich, creamy Greek yogurt kicks commercial mayonnaise to the curb any day. (If you make your own mayonnaise, that’s a different story — just be sure you have fresh eggs from a trusted source so that you can enjoy them raw.) Unadorned, whole-milk yogurt is a far better nutritional and flavor bet than commercial mayonnaise — the latter consists mostly of refined soy oil. And don’t even get me started on the euphemistically (to me, anyway) named “Miracle” Whip. I’ll pass on that particular miracle.

The traditional way to serve tartar sauce is alongside fish, but it’s equally lovely with potatoes, coleslaw (you could thin it with a bit of water or extra-virgin olive oil to make a dressing), chicken, lamb, or as a dip for veggies.

Tartar Sauce Made with Greek Yogurt

Whole-milk Greek yogurt (Fage is a great choice)
Spritz of fresh lemon juice
Minced pickle (my favorite pickle is McClure’s, so I minced some garlic & dill pickles)
Capers, drained (take them out of the jar with a fork)
Horseradish (the older the horseradish, the less hot it’ll be; taste before adding to see how much you’ll want)
Dried dill
Sea salt & freshly cracked pepper

Making any sauce is a highly subjective activity: you may want a thick sauce or a thin sauce, and of course the level of seasonings (salty, spicy, zesty, etc.) is up to you. I began with about 1/4 cup yogurt and 1 tsp. lemon juice, then stirred in enough pickle and capers to make a slightly chunky sauce. My horseradish is pretty fresh and hot, so I used less than a teaspoon to start. On the flip side, I love dill, so I used almost a full teaspoon to start.

If you’re going for a smooth sauce, mince the pickles very fine; if you want a spicier sauce, go for more horseradish; if you want a thinner sauce, go for more lemon juice (or add some water or extra-virgin olive oil if you want a thinner sauce that isn’t so lemony). You get the idea. Assuming you’re using fresh yogurt, prepared sauce will last for a week or more in the fridge. A final note: you can also include raw or sautéed garlic in your tartar sauce if you want that extra zip, but then I would only refrigerate the sauce for 3 or 4 days.

Enjoy!

Lime, Basil & Poppy Seed Shortbread Cookies

Shortbread may not seem like an obvious summer dessert, but buttery shortbread cookies spiced with citrus and fresh basil are unexpectedly refreshing on a hot summer day. The light, sandy texture typical of shortbread — pecan sandies and other “sand” or “sable” (French for “sand”) cookies are essentially shortbread cookies — means that the tender cookies fall apart in your mouth and melt on your tongue.  That feather-light sensation is an ideal platform for summery flavors like lemon and lime.  The poppyseeds add a contrasting crunch.

If you don’t have basil, fresh mint would work, too, or you could omit the fresh herb.  I’m such a huge basil fan that I leap at any excuse to include fresh basil in my dishes, whether they’re sweet or savory.  Adding some garden-fresh basil my cookie dough was a whimsical idea that proved itself to be a delicious reality — fresh basil has a scent and flavor that dried basil just doesn’t, and that elusive fresh greenness pairs very well with the bold fresh character of the lime juice and lemon zest.  Stay tuned for Lemon-Basil Ice Cream!

Lime, Basil & Poppy Seed Shortbread Cookies

1/2 cup brown rice flour*
1 cup sorghum flour*
1/2 cup millet flour*
1/2 tsp. fine-grained sea salt
2 T. poppy seeds
Zest of 1 organic lemon (since you’re using the skin, it’s worth choosing organic)
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 sticks butter, preferably from grass-fed cows (Kerrygold is a great choice), cut into chunks and left to soften at room temperature for 10 minutes
1/2 cup + 1 T. powdered sucanat (I powder mine in a coffee grinder — in about 10 seconds, you’ll have fine powder)
1/4 cup lime or lemon juice
2 tsp. vanilla
10 large basil leaves, cut into thin strips RIGHT BEFORE you add them to the dough (they’ll begin to darken almost immediately)

Preheat oven to 350F. Cover two baking sheets with parchment paper or grease VERY well — these tender cookies will tear easily if they stick to the pan.

Whisk flours, salt, poppy seeds, zest, and baking powder together in a medium bowl. In a large bowl, cream butter and sucanat with a mixer for 1 minute or until you have a well-blended, creamy mixture. You’ll note that if you use a pastured butter like Kerrygold, the butter will be much softer than conventional butter, even when it’s fresh out of the cold fridge. That’s because there is a lot less saturated fat in butter made from milk given by cows who actually roam around eating grass and exercising. Kerrygold is so nice and soft that you can almost cream it straight out of the fridge; conventional butter sometimes has to sit at room temp for an hour or more before it has softened. (Saturated fat gets very stiff when chilled, and since conventional butter has more saturated fat than grass-fed butter does, conventional butter takes a lot longer to soften.)

Beat in lime juice and vanilla, then gently stir in basil. If you want less-crumbly, more standard-textured cookies, add 2 eggs whites when you add the juice and vanilla.

Use a teaspoon to portion out small bits of dough. Roll each one into a ball about 1″ across and space them out so that you have 16 or 20 cookies per sheet. Press each ball down gently to flatten it. I used the bottom of a small bowl as my press — it left slight round indentations in each cookie, and I liked the textured look. If the dough sticks to whatever you’re using to press your cookies, gently pull the dough free with your fingers, pressing it into place with your hand if necessary. You might also want to refrigerate the dough for about 20 minutes if it starts getting too soft to work with.

Bake 2 cookie sheets at a time for 15 minutes, removing them when the tops of the cookies are starting to turn golden-brown and you can see a slight hint of brown at the base of each cookie (that’s a sign that they’re golden-brown underneath). Yield will be about 4 total sheets or 64 cookies.

Enjoy!

* These are gluten-free flours. If you’d prefer to make wheat-based cookies, use a total of 2 cups of any combination of whole-wheat, spelt, or kamut flours.

Summery Moroccan Lemon & Almond Soup

It’s summer, it’s hot (since when was Detroit in the middle of the Sahara?), and I’m sure I’m not the only one who doesn’t want to spend much time over a hot stove right now.  Hence, this soup!  Although it involves a bit of simmering time, the heat is on low and you don’t have to be near the stove stirring — instead, you can hang out by the cool sink and lazily rip cilantro leaves free from their stems.  This soup also has the advantage of tasting fabulous whether you serve it hot, cold, or at room temp.  (Fabulous flavors tend to happen when you use fresh ingredients like ginger root and organic lemon zest!)

Summery Moroccan Lemon & Almond Soup
Serves 2 for lunch, especially if you include some flatbread/crackers and some fresh fruit on the side.

2 cups chicken broth, preferably from free-range chickens
1 medium clove garlic, minced
About 1″ of peeled ginger root (use a paring knife to cut away the bark)
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. coriander
Zest of 1 lemon, preferably organic since you’re using the peel (if you have a microplane zester, use that to zest the lemon; if you don’t have a microplane, use a vegetable peeler and then mince the pieces of zest)
About 1 cup ground almonds (the finer the grind, the smoother the soup; coarsely ground or chopped almonds will make for a chunky soup)
Juice of 1 lemon, divided (be sure to zest the lemon before squeezing it!)
Dash of whole milk, preferably from grass-fed cows
Fresh cilantro leaves for garnish

Pour the broth into a medium pot and add the garlic. Hold a garlic press directly over the pot and press the ginger root in it to get the juice out. Discard remaining dry root. (If you get a very fresh piece of ginger and you’d like to include it all, mince the peeled root and add that instead. I usually have a hard time finding ultra-fresh ginger, so I press out the juice and skip using the fibrous strands left behind — the older the root, the more fibrous it gets.) Stir in cumin, coriander, and lemon zest. Add the almonds and half of the lemon juice.

Heat the soup over medium heat or medium-high heat just long enough to get a gentle boil, then reduce to low and simmer, uncovered, for 15 minutes. (This is when you can casually pluck your cilantro leaves from the stems.) Remove from heat and stir in remaining lemon juice and the dash of milk. If you want a velvet-smooth soup, run the finished soup through a food processor.

Serve soup hot, cold, or at room temp, garnishing with the cilantro. Leftover soup will keep in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. If you’d like to make the soup again with a slightly different twist, try using fresh mint leaves in place of the cilantro.

Enjoy!

Baked Feta with Lemon & Rosemary

Ever since I had baked Feta at a lovely out-of-the-way restaurant in Panamá, I’ve been wanting to make it myself.  The idea is just so simple!  I’d had baked Camembert plenty of times in Germany — when I lived there, baked Camembert with rote Grütze was one of my favorite dishes, right up there with Döner-Kebabs and Currywurst — but I’d never thought to bake Feta.  Brie, yes; Raclette, yes.  Fried Kasseri and Halloumi?  You bet.  But baked Feta was a new one for me.

Seeing as Feta is one of my favorite cheeses, baked Feta turns out to be one of my favorite baked dishes!  Adding a sprig of rosemary and a few shavings of lemon zest highlights the savoriness of the cheese and gives the dish a decidedly Mediterranean flavor.

Baked Feta with Lemon & Rosemary

Sheep’s-milk Feta
Zest grated from an organic lemon (seeing as you’re eating the peel, organic is worth it; besides, organic lemons are more juicy and thin-skinned, so you’ll have plenty of leftover juice to use in salad dressings, marinades, desserts, as fresh lemonade, whatever you’d like)
Sprig of fresh or dried rosemary
Drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil
Mixed lettuce

You can use a toaster oven or a standard oven for this one. I chose a toaster oven since it’s faster and you don’t need an entire baking sheet to hold the Feta.

Place uncut Feta on an aluminum- or parchment-covered baking tray. Top with lemon zest and a sprig of rosemary, then drizzle with just a hint of oil. (The oil is especially important if you’re using dried rosemary — it will prevent the rosemary from being scorched.) Bake at 250 for about 7 minutes in a toaster oven or at 350 for 10 minutes in a standard oven. The goal is to have the Feta just begin to soften and to start turning a light golden brown. While you’re waiting, place lettuce on a large serving plate or several individual smaller plates.

Remove Feta from oven and carefully transfer to waiting lettuce bed(s). Drizzle lettuce with a little bit of oil and lemon juice if desired.

Enjoy!

Shrimp, Feta & Avocado Salad

Compared to fish, clams, scallops, mussels — even lobster — shrimp strikes me as the richest, smoothest morsel of the sea.  Wild shrimp are especially sweet and creamy.  The only trick is not to overcook them into tough rubberiness.  Seeing as everyone loves a speedy and delicious dinner, though, the fact that they cook so quickly makes shrimp more of an asset than a liability.  Add in a ripe, ultra-creamy avocado, tender greens, and some salty-sharp Feta, and you have a swanky nouvelle California kind of meal in fewer than ten minutes.  (And assuming that you’re serving 4 or already have one or two of the main ingredients on hand, your swanky meal will cost less than $5 a plate.)

Shrimp, Feta & Avocado Salad

Serves 4 for lunch or a light dinner.  Recipe can easily be doubled or tripled.

Several handfuls mixed lettuce OR baby spinach
2 avocadoes, chopped
Feta cheese, preferably made from sheep or goat milk and preferably not pre-crumbled (the pre-crumbled type is dry and not nearly as tasty as the brick in brine)
Lemon juice
Extra-virgin olive oil
Sea salt & freshly cracked pepper
1 to 1 1/2 lbs. raw shrimp, preferably wild (cleaning them yourself isn’t hard and is a whole lot less expensive than buying ready-to-eat shrimp: just peel away and discard the shell [leave the tail attached if you prefer that look], run a knife along the top length of the shrimp so that you can pull out the dark cord visible just beneath the skin, and rinse well with cold water)

Prepare the salad base by gently tossing the lettuce and avocado with the Feta. (I like to chop my Feta before sprinkling it on my salads, but you could also cut it into slices or wedges.) Drizzle with fresh lemon juice and oil in about a 1:1 ratio, starting with 1 T. of each and adding more to taste. Add a dash of salt and pepper and divide the portions onto plates.

To cook the shrimp, heat a pat of butter or ghee in a large skillet over medium heat for 1 minute or until butter is sizzling. (You could use a splash of extra-virgin olive oil instead, but the butter will brown the shrimp a little more nicely than the oil will.) Add shrimp and cook for 1 or 2 minutes, shaking the pan occasionally to prevent shrimp from sticking. Use tongs to flip a shrimp over to see if it’s pink underneath. If it is, flip all of them over and cook for another minute or two until shrimp are pink on both sides and are starting to curl inwards.

Immediately remove from heat and top individual salads with shrimp.

Enjoy!

Skate with Cilantro & Lemon

Although I normally steer clear of fish on Seafoodwatch.org’s “avoid” list, if skate shows up at my local fish market, I sometimes buy it.  (I actually hadn’t realized skate was on the “avoid” list until after I’d made this dish.)  It tastes a lot like scallops, which is a bonus for me since scallops are the #1 thing that I can’t eat — they are, in fact, the only food that is guaranteed to make me miserable within an hour of eating it.  Despite scallops’ attitude towards me, however, I like them a lot, so it’s a rare treat to be able to enjoy a scallops-y flavor without the unfriendly scallops having to be involved.

That said, you could certainly use scallops instead of skate in this dish, or you could use a light-flavored, light-textured fish like trout or perch.  Likewise, if you aren’t such a huge cilantro fan, you could use parsley or dill or even basil instead.

Skate with Cilantro & Lemon
Serves 2 hearty fish-lover meals or 4 standard meals.

4 cloves garlic, sliced thin
1 lb. light-flavored, light-textured fish (trout, perch, skate), rinsed in cold water and patted dry*
Squeeze of fresh lemon juice
About 1/4 cup minced cilantro (or other leafy herbs such as parsley, dill, or basil)
Chopped fresh tomatoes or canned diced tomatoes
Sprinkling of sea salt (optional)

Drizzle a little extra-virgin olive oil into a large nonstick saucepan and place over medium-low heat for 1 minute. Add garlic and sautée for 2 minutes, then push garlic to the edges of the pan and place the fish in the center of the pan with the skin side up. Cook for another 2-3 minutes or until the flesh is opaque about halfway up — the surface touching the pan will cook first — and then gently flip the fish over. Continue cooking for another 2-3 minutes or until the center of the fish flakes cleanly when you poke it open with a fork.

Remove pan from heat and stir in lemon juice, cilantro, tomatoes, and salt. Serve immediately, making sure to give each diner a good portion of the pan drippings.

Enjoy!

* Or feel free to use scallops, although I must admit that I’m unfamiliar with how to cook the little buggers since they clearly don’t like me.